This blog is part of the Scáth na Feannóige/Shadow of the Hooded Crow project exploring fénnidecht as a practice to follow the War Goddessses, Badb, Macha and the Morrígan whose name is Anann. This is a less formal place for me to discuss various issues of interest to someone on a modern version of the Outlaw warrior path such as physical training, history, Old Irish literature, pop culture inspirations, werewolves, ecstatic trance (okay, I find that one tough to write about but I may try), gender issues the wilderness....

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

When I first saw this topic, when I saw a link to Asa West's Giving Bullets to the Morrigan, I thought, "Cool! Someone else doing it!" "It" being a long held plan, which hasn't happened yet for, uh, reasons, to create a "sacred shooting range." As soon as the guy and I decide on a location and get fill to the spot and create a berm we are going to have a shooting range on our property and there will be a shrine to the Morrígan over looking it. I already dedicate my training to her, but this would be a formal spot to do so, much like my gym is a temple for that part of the training (and sometimes for trigger control practice with a laser "bullet" when I can't get out for live fire....which I could more if I had a place on the property).

I'm sure there are other pics of me at this training,
I need to try to access them sometime.

But that's not what it's about but rather about giving bullets as offerings. So my first thought on that was, "huh, that would be a rather pathetic offering." You know, just a random bullet. There's not a lot that stands out between two bullets of the same make. Sure, I can see if I were to use my gun in defense of myself or another without firing a shot that the bullet in my chamber at the time might be a worthy offering. But I wouldn't give just any old bullet.

Of course, what this actually became about, the reason it was brought up, was whether it was okay for other people to do this. And it brought with it a lot of the standard anti- vs. pro-gun arguments, with some Pagan twists. The sort of things that make most leftist gun-owners, like myself, look at both sides and double face-palm as you watch each side feed the other. This time with the added oddity of some claim that guns are just made for killing people but swords are not....except that that really is all swords were ever made for. They do things like this and also this. But it is not uncommon to romanticize the violence of the past while vilifying the violence of the present, I am sure that as the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age there were those who spoke of the nobility of the bronze blade over the evils of the steel. Even the guns of the past get this romantic treatment, as people wax nostalgic for the six-shooter of the Old West while expressing horror at a semi-automatic pistol.

I could get into the whole primary focus on why anti-gun Pagans seem to be upset over bullets as offerings, which is a pet peeve of mine. That is "the Morrígan should not be reduced to a War Goddess, She is more than that" claim which always translates to "I want the Morrígan to not be a War Goddess at all, because I want Her to be what I want Her to be." Here's the thing, to say that it reduces Her to be called, as she was in the text, a Goddess of Battle (bandee in catæ..in the Tochmarc Emire), is a bias based on you not understanding all that there was to such a Goddess in the context of early Irish culture. This is also true if you insist that her link with "battle" is about "internal conflict" or "fighting inner demons," which may be your UPG (Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis), and that's fine, but does not define Her as She was known in the early Irish culture (or for many of us who certainly do not share that UPG). In fact, my own findings and UPG is far more about waking up those "inner demons" and letting them take over and shift you (this is exactly what my work is all about...see especially Wolf-shapes and Chase). ( Or to claim that Her link to sovereignty, which West brings up, is about the modern concept of individual autonomy, rather than actual about kingship (open only to one who had proven themselves a warrior) of a territory (likely won and kept by war). Again, it may well be valid UPG, but don't claim it's anything else. But I already wrote a whole article detailing how all those "other things" come back to Her being a War Goddess, because they all relate to warfare as the culture knew it.

Okay, back to bullets as offerings. It never, ever occurred to me to give bullets in the way that apparently is being discussed here. In part is the sheer, well, regularity and number of them with which to choose if you were just doing a random "bullet offering." Certainly they are not cheap these days, however there's a volume of them one might go through which creates the expense. One, individual bullet is simply not that individual. Again, I could see offering one that stands out....the one in the chamber you didn't have to fire to save yourself or another, perhaps one left over from a big win if you're a competitive shooter or one left over because your first shot was the clean kill you had hoped for when hunting for food. There may be many reasons a particular bullet does warrant it for the person involved. Maybe once we start reloading, I'll start thinking of them as more individual than I do now and it will be something I feel drawn to do. But, of course, ymmv and I'm not going to say it's wrong if someone else does feel that a random bullet from a brick is a worthy offering. I would be more likely to offer a really nicely clustered paper target. ~;p (I need to invest in some paper targets when I finally have a range....)

Of course, there is my personal semantics around offerings. For me an offering is only something broken or totally destroyed and hidden from this world, so that it is taken into the Otherworld. At least in the end. Some offerings sit on my shrine for a period of time, but in the end they are destroyed in some way in this world. Usually by fire....please, tell me I do not need to explain not to do this with live rounds.

An item that sits on my shrine (or altar if you prefer) is not an
offering, unless it is to be so destroyed eventually. Instead I would call them dedicated or devotional objects. A slight difference between the two although in a way both are things that you might say I share possession of with the Being the shrine is for.

Devotional objects are those which are, indeed, only to stay
on the shrine as symbolic of devotion, such as statues and, well, I
actually have a lot of things that I felt drawn to maintain on the
shrines. Some are used in ritual at times, such as candle holders or a
stone "well" which might hold water. Some targets might end up being both, now that I am thinking of it...some sent and destroyed, some hung by a shrine (and one or two maybe by the door way). Images and symbols are among these things, which includes a Sarah Connor figure...holding a gun with the other slung across her back....to represent the modern female warrior or, even, a modern image of the War Goddess). These things are mostly Theirs, but I do get to look at them unlike full offerings.

Dedicated objects
are items which I might use personally, even "mundanely" but which I associate with my worship and which are blessed. I keep some of my
jewelry on my personal shrine to the Morrígan when I am not wearing it,
but I wear it anytime I might go out. These things are more mine.

I could see, should the Revenant Cataclysm hit, putting bricks of bullets on the shrines to ask for blessings on a regular basis...whether they are for killing revenants or hunting for food or both. So, on the shrine, but not an offering exactly (heads, meat, depending would be more appropriate).

Some things, including weapons may be seen as somewhat in between these items. I may not use my swords on a regular basis (practice, when I do it, is with single-sticks...I fear this has been a neglected art of late). My guns, however, do not reside on my shrines, although they are formally blessed and if I have my gun when I go into the gym and remove it (usually when stretching after a run it sits between the figure of the Morrígan and the Sarah Connor figure, because it is dedicated to them (and it's a safe location while I'm there). Even my weights and and other fitness equipment, as all my training is a dedicated act and I see my gym as a temple of worship.might be seen as dedicated devotional objects, although not formally blessed (hmmmm).

Which brings me back to my first thought on this subject. If training is a dedicated act, then that does include my firearms training so, I suppose it can be seen as giving bullets to Her. This is true where ever I might practice, however, I do want a range here on our property and a shrine overlooking it. Where it will go is still being negotiated and
we need to budget in the fill for the berm which we need no matter
where, due the layout of our land, which also requires it being
somewhere we can get a truck to. Perhaps this summer it will happen.

Training is always the basis of my offering, for to be the best I can be is my service to Her. It is also a gift, for being able to train is often a struggle for me due to health issues. So reciprocation, She helps me to be able to train, I train to thank Her for that. Whether this is staying fit or being able to hit a target and respond properly to danger.

I may never really feel drawn to giving a bullet. It just doesn't sit right unless something does happen to make a particular one that important to me. But since this has been brought up, it has occurred to me that I do need to make a weapons offering in the way done since the Bronze Age.

Someday, I shall properly offer a gun to the Morrígan. It will be a fine gun, expensive, far more than would even be possible for me to acquire now. It will be utterly "killed" in this world to send it to the Otherworld and sunk deeply in a marsh. This here is my promise to Her for this, in hopes that She also might help me be able to be in a position to do so...for if I am, it will be right that I reciprocate.

Scáth na Feannóige

Exploring the warrior path as a way to the Gaelic War Goddesses; Badb, Macha and the Morrígan, whose name is Anann

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So who the hells am I?

Gaelic Heathen on the warrior path in service to the War Goddesses, Badb, Macha and the Morrígan, AFAA certified personal trainer, homesteader, horsewoman, alpha bitch to a motley dog pack, self-defense junkie, fitness freak, left-wing gun nut, fangirl, seeker of ancient knowledge, practitioner of modern ways, staff member of The Sarah Connor Charm School, fan and teller of stories of strong women from ancient times and modern....